1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus utilizing an electrophotographic process such as a copier, a printer, a facsimile machine or the like, and in particular, to an image forming apparatus capable of contributing to an improvement in user convenience and increasing the operating capacity of an apparatus body to the extent possible.
2. Description of the Related Art
A corona charger is provided to an image forming apparatus utilizing an electrophotographic process such as a copier, a printer, a facsimile machine or the like. The corona charger is provided in the vicinity along a rotation axis direction of a photosensitive drum on which an electrostatic latent image is formed. The corona charger has a function of applying a predetermined potential to a surface of the photosensitive drum by corona discharge. In order to achieve this charging function, a discharge wire is laid across the corona charger, along the rotation axis direction of the photosensitive drum.
In this corona charger, floating toner within the image forming apparatus, gaseous products in conjunction with discharge, etc., are easily adhered to the discharge wire. As a result, there is a problem that the discharging function is gradually reduced as the image forming processing is performed repeatedly.
As one of the approaches for solving such a problem, the present inventor proposes a wire cleaning mechanism configured to include a grid cleaner which is fixed with a fixing holder of an apparatus body and has a wet sponge provided so as to be opposed to a grid, and remove extraneous matter while the wet sponge contacts with the surface of the grid by sliding the charger (see Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2006-178265, for example). According to this wire cleaning mechanism, reliable cleaning of the grid is possible with a simple configuration, and occurrence of leakage due to entry of moisture inside the charger can be obviated.
On the other hand, it is necessary to power off the apparatus body once when cleaning work of the discharge wire is carried out, in general. Thus, a user who powers on the apparatus body after the cleaning work of the discharge wire is carried out cannot use the apparatus until its operation is stabilized. As a result, there is room for improvement from the perspective that user convenience is lost and also the operating capacity of the apparatus is improved.